Our Love Story: How We Met

Today at work, the song "God Bless the Broken Road" came on the playlist my friend was listening to. It finally really hit me how relevant this song is to how Seth and I met. I know, this makes the blog post seem really cheesy. But that's okay, Seth and I are a little bit cheesy.

I'm going to take you back about four years, give or take a few months, (wow, typing that out made me realize how long ago this all happened). I was a pastor's kid at a local non-dominational but more on the conservative side church. My dad had been a youth pastor since I was about two years old so I've always grown up going to youth group, even at five years old. Long story short, we had a bad split from that church and my whole family, especially my dad, was very hurt. It was a whole complicated mess, my parents never really told me the whole story. It ended up being almost a year before we started going back to church again, maybe nine months or so. My dad finally felt up to trying out new churches around July 2010. The very first church that we visited was

. I don't know what it was but something inside me just fell in love with Victory after that first visit. My family decided to visit a local mega-church but hated it and I begged to go back to Victory.

We attended Victory off and on over the summer and in August my dad asked my brother and I to visit the youth group. This was a huge step for both my brother and I since my dad had always been our youth pastor. I have to admit, I was so scared that first Wednesday night. I probably acted so weirdly. We met up with the then youth pastor, Eric, and he introduced to the small youth group (think like

maybe

thirty kids including both middle school and high school). That night they were playing the game "Honey, I love you." I'm sure many of you have never heard of that game...basically what you do is sit in the circle and there's a person in the middle who goes around to people saying, "Honey, I love you so won't you please, please smile?" The goal of the other person is to say, "Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile" without smiling. It's a pretty hilarious game because you can do

anything

to get them to smile. Literally, anything. I remember this dorky red-headed kid having to say that to my brother, but he lost. Little did I know, that dorky red head would end up being my husband.

A few months went by and I really only knew Seth as the dorky but funny guy that ran all the tech stuff for the youth group. The youth group went on a big trip to New York City for a weekend that fall. During that entire weekend I was actually texting a guy from my school, I was so desperate and clingy it was pathetic. The kid totally didn't like me back. Seth and I actually ended up being in the same group. I only remembered that when I found this picture on Facebook.

Eek. I'm the one on the far left with the leopard print bag, horrible hair, and frumpy jacket (which I thought at the time was awesome). Seth is the one of the far right who, of course, took charge of the group during the scavenger hunt at Toys R Us.

Soon after the trip, I felt compelled to share my testimony with the youth group so I talked to Pastor Eric and he let me on stage one night. I spilled my guts out about my eating disorder treatment and my anxiety disorder and how I have overcome so much in my life. It felt really good and for once in my life, no one judged me or treated me differently after I shared my story.

About two weeks before New Years 2011, we had a youth group Christmas Party. I took my two best friends at the time with me and my brother went as well. At the party, Seth was (apparently) chatting me up and eventual we exchanged numbers but I honestly thought nothing of it. After the party, my brother and two friends both told me that he was flirting with me the

entire

night. Shows you how oblivious I can be.

Seth and I texted back and forth for awhile and then he texted me saying, "Hey, do you want to go see Narnia [Voyage of the Dawn Treader] with me tomorrow? You can bring friends if you want..." I may have laughed quite a bit at the "You can bring friends part." I decided to go on this little date because I knew he was a really nice guy and always found him to be funny.

Off we went to see Narnia. Embarrassing moment: We met at the theater because our houses were totally opposite from each other and as I pulled into the parking space, I totally went to far and my bumper went over the curb. Fail. We talked the entire time during the movie and a few times Seth made the entire theater laugh out loud (there was only a few people at the showing because we went early in the day) which made me smile, a lot. The movie finished and we kind of stood there awkwardly by the ticket booths and right then and there, I decided it was having an amazing time and didn't want it to end. So I casually said that I was going to get coffee at the Starbucks up the street and he could come if he wanted (he even pretended that he didn't know where the Starbucks was, dork haha). We ended up talking at Starbucks for two hours and I laughed the entire time. It only ended because he had to go to work (at McDonald's).

I went into the date not expecting a thing, and came out head over heels for the dorky red head who ran sound at church. With Seth, it was different right from the beginning than it had ever been with every other guy that I had ever liked. Although I never had an official boyfriend before Seth, he had gone on one or two dates before but nothing really ever panned out because I pursued the guy more than he pursued me. Seth pursued me first. In fact, I didn't even have any type of feelings for him before that first date. Seriously, I didn't think a thing would happen after going on the date with him. I thought we would just part ways as friends and that would be that. Boy was I wrong!

God showed me Seth at a time when I was least expecting it and that's what really made it special for us. My main piece of advice that I give to teenage girls is to let the guy pursue you. Sometimes he may need a little push or nudge, but for the most part let him pursue you. I cannot stress that enough. I also believe that women need to stop desperately searching for a man. God will give you your husband when you are ready for him. Your job is to prepare yourself to be a Godly wife and mother. As a teenager, you don't need to always have a boyfriend or a guy to text. Trust me, you are just wasting your time. I let me heart be broken many, many times doing things like that.

Seth and I have had far from a perfect relationship. But the fact that we have overcome all the crap that we have been through as a couple, means that we really are meant to be together and God has amazing plans for us. I truly, truly believe that.

In twenty-six days I get to make Sethy my husband and we begin our happily ever after. My heart is currently bursting with joy at the thought of being his wife for the rest of my life.